There’s a bit of internet folk wisdom, frequently (and incorrectly) attributed to Margaret Atwood, which reads, “Men are afraid women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.” Unverifiable or not, that’s a terrifying reality to live with. But it must be lived with, and it must be processed in one…

Amid all the controversy surrounding this year’s Fantastic Fest, there’s one group that should not get lost in the shuffle: The female filmmakers whose works screened at the festival. If the film industry in general is male-dominated, the genre film world is even more so, making visibility and support for the women…

Last week, former Alamo Drafthouse employee Jasmine Baker came forward with allegations that Ain’t It Cool News founder Harry Knowles had sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions. She’d previously told Drafthouse CEO Tim League, who, along with Knowles, is one of the co-founders of Fantastic Fest. But although…

Just a week after the Alamo Drafthouse and Fantastic Fest came under fire for the quiet re-hiring of former Birth.Movies.Death. editor Devin Faraci—who was accused last year of groping and sexually assaulting a woman several years ago, leading to his now having been twice forced to resign from the Drafthouse…

Devin Faraci is not here. Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League isn’t here either. League’s usual introductory duties for opening night of Fantastic Fest were passed off to equally qualified but lesser-seen female staff members this year, after the revelation that League continued to employ Faraci in secret after sexual…

Although the Alamo Drafthouse—co-organizers of next week’s Fantastic Fest in Austin—announced on Wednesday that it was once again parting ways with recently re-hired film critic Devin Faraci, the fallout from the decision to bring him back into the corporate fold is still being felt. Today, Variety reports that Fox…

Earlier today, we reported on outrage breaking out among the ranks of the Alamo Drafthouse and its affiliated efforts—including next week’s Fantastic Fest in Austin—over news that editor Devin Faraci had quietly returned to the company’s ranks, and was writing materials for its Fantastic Fest program guide. The…

The director of international programming for Fantastic Fest has announced that he’s quitting the festival, over news that former Birth.Movies.Death. editor Devin Faraci has been rehired to work for the event. Faraci resigned from BMD—which, like Fantastic Fest, is owned and operated by Austin’s Drafthouse theater…

The downside of most cool film festivals is that they’re not happening anywhere near wherever you happen to live (unless you happen to be a Cannes or Park City native, which sounds like it would be annoying), so the people behind Austin’s Fantastic Fest have decided to take some of their cool movie fun around the…

The first wave of programming has been announced for the 13th year of Austin-based genre film festival Fantastic Fest, which rides forth this year with an Arabic theme to follow up on last year’s ode to Indian film and 2015’s Turkish cinema celebration. Highlighting cinema from Egypt to Afghanistan, repertory…

In the nearly 10 years since he premiered his debut Timecrimes at Fantastic Fest, Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo has become the festival’s semi-official mascot, dancing furiously to karaoke renditions of The Killers in a Fay Wray costume at the closing night party and accepting hugs and high-fives from festival…

Film festivals in general—and Fantastic Fest in particular, I suspect—present a situation that’s both fun and kind of intimidating: Take a bunch of people who prefer to spend their time immersed in fantasy worlds, and make them socialize with each other for an entire week. On the one hand, it’s exciting to meet people…

Even in the bubble of a film festival, where political discussions tend to revolve around who got invited to which afterparty, the real world intervenes occasionally. So it was yesterday at Fantastic Fest, where a rumor was going around that Monday’s “secret screening” would be the debate between Donald Trump and…

It doesn’t rain much in Austin—I considered bringing an umbrella, but left it behind, chiding myself for overpacking—but it’s been raining for days, bringing the chaos level at the already-crowded Alamo Drafthouse to overwhelming levels as the crowds of people who usually mill around outside the theater converged with…

Arriving in Austin late on Wednesday, I was dropped off in the lobby of the Alamo Drafthouse’s South Lamar outpost, the central locus for all things Fantastic Fest. At that point, it just looked like a regular movie theater (albeit one with The Shining-themed carpet), as a crew of festival employees with power tools…

Finally, the thrilling game of Russian roulette will be making its way to your living room! Andrew Reitano was “inspired by the best kinds of bar games” and nostalgia for the 8-bit NES when he began developing Super Russian Roulette. Since then, he has taken the cartridge—designed for play on the original NES…

Upon looking at The Chickening, other filmmakers wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer. That’s a bit of hyperbole, but the short film does seemingly represent the culmination of remix culture in film. Directed by Nick DenBoer and Davy Force, The Chickening has toured film festivals for a while—playing TIFF, …

With the abundance of film festivals, not to mention sites like Vimeo and YouTube, short films are becoming even more popular for young filmmakers who wish to get their movies out there. They’ve become great stepping stones for people like Neill Blomkamp (District 9), Astron-6 (The Editor), RKSS (Turbo Kid), and…

Eschewing the typical film-festival awards ceremony, Fantastic Fest announced its awards at its closing-night party, held this year at a backlot-style “ghost town” that’s a favorite for Old West-themed weddings in Austin. There, the winners had to compete with a dunking booth, mechanical bull, karaoke room, free…

Well, it’s over. The Shaw Brothers mural has been taken down, the donkey has been returned to its owners—more on that later—and the last remnants of Fantastic Fest are trudging to the airport, dreaming of their own beds. The last day of the festival was mostly composed of encore screenings, including a second showing…